When it comes to girls and guitars, Portland, Oregon, singer-songwriter Mary Flower has something that most canβt lay claim to: twin finishes in the prestigious National Finger Style Guitar Championship.
She placed in the top three twice β in 2000 and 2003 β becoming the only woman to ever land that high two times in the prestigious guitar competition.
Sheβll surely show off some of that fancy, award-winning fingerpicking when she plays a show at Tucsonβs Exo Bar on Saturday, Feb. 9. Tucsonβs budding young bluesman Roman Barten-Sherman opens the show at 8 p.m.
After reading her bio, you get the sense that Flower, an Indiana native who has lived in Portland since the early 2000s, does not merely play the guitar. It is an extension of her, something so ingrained in her musical soul that she feels the need to spread its gospel to anyone who will listen.
She does guitar camps including her intensive five-day Menuchaβs Blues in the Gorge clinic close to home in Portland. In late September, she will host the sixth annual camp, five days of classes and jam sessions with four world-class blues players and teachers.
But sheβs also a pretty exceptional performer with 10 albums to her credit and a reputation for putting on a pretty terrific live show. Her fingerpicking and lap-slide guitar prowess has been called βmeter-perfectβ with a βdeft blend of inventive, the dexterous and the mesmerizing.β
Translation: Watch her hands closely because she is sure to amaze us.
Her voice has been described as βsupple honey-and-whiskey,β which translates to this: Perfect vehicle to deliver the blues.
Saturdayβs show at Exo, 403 N. Sixth Ave., starts at 8 p.m.; doors open at 7. Tickets are $13 in advance at Exo or online at exocoffee.com, or $15 at the door.
